Almost
immediately upon receiving its charter, the Hudson's Bay Company began
to lay claim to its vast and rich empire. From the very outset, the
whole business of the Company was to be business  the fur trade
 not the dissemination of the British way of life, or the conversion
of the native population to Christianity.

It built trading
posts at the mouths of the Rupert, Albany and Moose Rivers, and established
relationships with the local tribes. Highly structured trading rituals
evolved. The trade items included knives, files, kettles, cloth and
eventually the "Hudson's Bay blanket," which was frequently
made into clothing  its snowy color giving hunters the ability
to stalk their winter prey undetected.